Families of SOs Community Group
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My husband is at the end of his sentence. When I say at the end. I mean one year left on a ten year sentence. with his "good time" he can be released in the year 2016 instead of maxing out in 2018. A few days ago he was transferred to what we both thought was a medical facility but he was sent to a sex offender prison. Gowanda CF(only a small portion of it ONLY houses sex offenders) the rest is a general prison.
He has to take a sex offender class and was told by his counselor there he does have to admit to the crime, and tell when and why he did it or all his good time will be taken away. Also even if he admits it, the staff has to believe it.
I thought release was up to a parole board?
My husband has maintained his innocence since day one but was incarcerated, so you mean it was a BIG lie by someone else that got him put in there but in order to get out he has to tell an even BIGGER lie?
He has to take a sex offender class and was told by his counselor there he does have to admit to the crime, and tell when and why he did it or all his good time will be taken away. Also even if he admits it, the staff has to believe it.
I thought release was up to a parole board?
My husband has maintained his innocence since day one but was incarcerated, so you mean it was a BIG lie by someone else that got him put in there but in order to get out he has to tell an even BIGGER lie?
Your husband is in the same position I was in several years ago-----both of us maintained our innocence and both lost at trial.
They approached me with the idea to take the sex offender treatment class. I refused. I was not guilty, refused to ever admit guilt, would never even be able to enroll in the class because I would not say I was guilty, so there was no reason for them to waste their time trying to force me to take the program. The program was also court ordered by the judge during sentencing in my case, BTW.
There was no way I was going to take the course, so they locked me up, put me in solitary confinement for 102 days, and finally gave up. They had threatened that my refusal to take the course would be considered a program failure and they could take all my good time away.
They didn't. The let me out of solitary confinement, never said another word to me, never gave me a program failure, and never took any of my good time away.
My theory was that they had done just about everything they could do to me, so there is no way that I would now admit guilt just to make it easy on myself. For the same reason, I waived parole the last two years of my sentence as I knew a person must admit guilt to ever be considered for parole----and I was not ever going to say I was guilty when I wasn't.
It really bothers these people when an offender refuses to admit guilt. To show you how far they will go, at my sentencing the new DA filed a petition with the court to force me to admit guilt----after I had just gone to jury trial. Of course, that was denied instantly. The point is that if they cannot get you to admit some kind of guilt one way, they will try other avenues.
Your husband went to trial, so he did not sign a plea agreeing to take a SOTP as part of his sentence. Do you know if the judge ordered him to take SOTP at sentencing?
When he went to his initial classification when he first went to start prison, was a SOTP recommended by the case manager? Usually if someone goes to trial and maintains their innocence, they will not bother him. You have to admit your guilt to enroll in the program and your husband did not.
I am thinking there is a couple of court cases regarding situations similar to this one.
I also remember that courts have upheld the fact that parole boards can deny parole to an inmate who refuses to admit guilt. There are several cases that deal with this parole issue.
Here is a court case I found------It is a case out of Iowa.
In Dykstra v. Iowa, 783 N.W.2d 473 (2010), the Supreme Court of Iowa ruled that Iowa’s Department of Corrections (IDOC) procedural implementation of Iowa Code § 903A.2 (1) (a) (Supp. 2005), which states that “an inmate required to participate in sex offender treatment program” (SOTP) will not be eligible for a reduced sentence unless the inmate
participates and completes such a program, violated due process rights because of the lack of procedural protections as outlined in Wolff v. McDonnell, 418
U.S. 539 (1974).
A court in New York state may or may not come to the same conclusion.
Some states in some situations would no doubt attempt to give your husband a program failure if he failed to take the program, which would automatically cause a loss of good time. But he cannot take the program without admitting guilt.
That leaves the inmate in a terrible dilemma.
I do know that there is no misconduct, program failure, or write up in prison that can take more than 365 days good time in Oklahoma, so the bit about taking all his good time is most likely not true. I cannot imagine them taking several years of good time credits for any misconduct no matter how severe.
Even a Class X write up or misconduct can only take away a maximum of 365 days and then many times an inmate close to his release date can apply to have the lost days reinstated.
And some states have ruled that none of the accrued good time credits can be taken away but any future credits after the refusal to take the program can be denied. At least I think I remember that correctly.
Perhaps Aladdin or Independent can shed some light on this.
I never knew of an instance in Oklahoma in which any inmate ever had any of his good time credits taken away for not taking the sex offender treatment programs. I personally knew at least four inmates who did not take the course when asked and did not lose any good time.
My opinion is that they are bluffing when they tell him that he has to admit guilt to take the course or all this good time credits will be taken away.
BTW, how many good time credits does he stand to lose? If I remember, your husband was doing a large percentage of his time anyway.
rewdiazepam
I pray it plays out well for him to stick to the truth. Rew's road was rough but he prevailed. Take hope in that. Hats off to you Nicole. You've been strong for so long but will need to keep being strong afterword for a host of reasons. If he has post release to serve and after care to take (likely on the aftercare, because according to them he must be set free from the demon of denial) they'll keep hammering him there to confess as well. What's your experience there Rew?
SOTP in Kansas does the same coercion thing. I did not experience what your husband is because sadly I was guilty and was ready to face it down. I did form two close friendships with men who I sincerely believed were innocent, and were subjected to this. My transparency about my crime with these true friends gave them ample opportunity to confess if they were even in some way in the wrong and they never did but still showed me so much grace over my situation.
One of them caved to the inquisition in time, the other was not about to. He was rolled to a notoriously tough cell block in the max and then scrutinized for civil commitment, because of course, we have ways of making you talk. He beat the commitment, but I was released before I learned if he actually lost good time.
We'll sincerely be praying for you and him that doing the right thing pays off.
When I had a long "discussion" with the case manager, I said, "You can do anything you want to me, but the one thing you will never be able to do is make me guilty."
If it were me, I would refuse the program. I don't think they can take away all his good time and I am not sure they will take away any good time credits since he went to trial and did not plea.
If they do take away his good time, he can always appeal it and the grievances for good time credits, especially at the end of one's sentence, is successful more often than not. Many times if restoring the good time credits will put the inmate out the door, they will restore them.
When a person maintains his innocence, he can always expect things like this. To me, it was important for me to maintain my dignity and who I was so they could have beaten me half to death and I still would have maintained my innocence. I simply did not care.
Sometimes our principles are all we have left. This is a decision your husband must make and regardless of the decision he makes, I understand.
Good luck,
rewdiazepam
That's the full guidelines....you'll notice that after the last "win" by an inmate charging that he did not have the option to "opt out" in 2007 they added page 38 which allows you to "refuse treatment"....but that it takes away any earned time, any family reunion benefits, yada yada....
You cannot be charged with anything said in those meetings....here's more info from that document:
Similarly, a claim that an offender cannot suffer adverse consequences for refusing to participate in
sex offender counseling because the case is on appeal and there is a continuing Fifth Amendment right not to be compelled to self-incriminate is incorrect.
The Second Circuit United States Court of Appeals ruled in Johnson v. Baker, 108 F.3d 10, “...that state officials are permitted to take adverse administrative action for failure to respond to inquiries, even where the answers might tend to incriminate, so long as the adverse consequence is imposed for failure to answer a relevant inquiry and not for refusal to give up a constitutional right.” The court said “...no doubt that inquiries seeking an inmate’s admission to an alleged sexual offense are relevant to the proper f
unctioning of a rehabilitative program.” The court further stated: “an inmate who is unwilling to admit to a particular criminal activity is unlikely to benefit from a rehabilitative process aimed at helping those guilty of that activity.”
Ahhhh welcome to New York! (though I will give them credit for recently prohibiting restrictions on housing!)
I kind of hope he goes to Collins I checked and they have trailers.....ha ha